The 62nd edition of the Struga Poetry Evenings is set to begin on Thursday with the planting of a tree sapling at the Poetry Park in honor of the 2023 Golden Wreath winner, Macedonian poet Vlada Urošević.

The opening ceremony will include the lighting of the festival fire and a reading of Konstantin Miladinov’s poem “Longing for the South” in front of the plateau at the House of Poetry.

The motto of this year’s festival edition is “Feeling-Creative/Created Language.”

The festival’s program includes an international poetry reading “Poetic Meridians”, a poetry reading of the shortlisted poets for the 2023 “Miladinov Brothers” award, as well as presentations of the 2023 “Miladinov Brothers” award to Dimitar Bashevski, “Golden Wreath” award to Vlada Urošević, “Bridges of Struga” award to Gavin Bradley, exhibitions in honor of the 100th anniversary since the birth of Aco Shopov, and “200 Years Since the Birth of Shandor Petefi.”

The festival is set to close on Sunday with the “Bridges” ceremony, international poetry reading, and presentation of the “Golden Wreath”, “Miladinov Brothers” and “Bridges of Struga” awards to this year’s laureates Vlada Urošević, Gavin Bradley and Dimitar Bashevski.